Tommy Lynn Sells
|image = Tommy Lynn Sells.jpeg |birth place = Oakland, California, United States |death date = April 3, 2014 |death place = Huntsville Unit, Huntsville, Texas, United States |time = July 5, 1979 - December 31, 1999 |capture = January 2, 2000 |victims = 23-70+ killed 3 attempted |mo = Varied }} Tommy Lynn Sells, a.k.a. The Coast to Coast Killer and The Cross Country Killer, was an American pedophiliac, hebephiliac, and necrophiliac serial killer, serial rapist, family annihilator, abductor, and robber who claimed to have murdered over 70 people. Background Sells was born on June 28, 1964 in Oakland, California. He had a twin sister named Tammy Jean. They were two of the five children in his family, having been brought into the world by Nina, their unmarried mother. A few months later, Sells and his sister contracted meningitis; he survived, but she died. Shortly thereafter, he was sent to live with his aunt. Two years later, Nina brought him back home when she learned that his aunt wanted to adopt him. When Sells was seven years old, he began drinking. At eight, he was molested by a man with Nina's consent. At ten, he began abusing drugs. Three years later, a naked Sells climbed into his grandmother's bed while she slept. This incident caused him to be banned from the house, and not long afterwards, his mother and siblings suddenly left town, abandoning him. A few days later, he assaulted a female by striking her with a pistol in a fit of rage. In 1978, 14-year-old Sells was on the road, living the life of a permanent drifter. In May 1981, Sells reunited with his family in Little Rock, Arkansas, but Nina threw him out after he stripped naked and attempted to join her in the shower. After failing to get help from a mental health clinic, Sells began drinking more, eventually leading to his first arrest in 1982 for public drunkenness. Killings, Capture, and Execution Sells claimed to have committed his first murder when he fifteen years old. He broke into a house and saw the homeowner sexually abusing a boy. Remembering his own sexual abuse as a child, he became enraged and shot the man. This murder has never been confirmed. Sells committed numerous unrelated crimes for the next few years, including theft, driving under the influence, and assault. However, murder was what he enjoyed the most. In 1983, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he beat a woman and her daughter to death with a baseball bat. Multiple other killings would continue to occur; on October 15, 1987, Sells drugged Stefanie Stroh with LSD before he fatally strangled her. He then encased her feet in concrete and dumped her in a desert hot spring. Her body has never been found. On November 17-18, Sells was hitchhiking in Ina, Illinois. He was picked up by Keith Dardeen, who offered to bring him back home for dinner. When they got to the Dardeen residence, Sells pulled out a gun and shot him in the head twice. He then cut off Keith's penis before killing him with one more shot to the head. Keith's son, Peter, was bludgeoned to death. Sells then attacked Elaine, Keith's pregnant wife; the beating was so severe that she went into labor and gave birth to her daughter (whose parents had decided to give her the name Casey). He fatally bludgeoned Casey before raping her mother. Sells proceeded to mutilate Elaine's breasts before beating her to death and sexually assaulting her corpse with the baseball bat that he had used to murder her children. He left the weapon sticking out of her vagina. On May 13, 1992, Fabienne Witherspoon found Sells begging on the streets. She took him to her home, where he proceeded to rape her. He then stabbed her eighteen times and beat her with a piano stool. Witherspoon survived and alerted police. Sells was arrested and sentenced to a minimum of two years in prison. He was released in 1997. Sells' murders came to an end on December 31, 1999 in Del Rio, Texas. Holding a 12-inch knife, he entered a house and sexually assaulted Kaylene Harris before stabbing her sixteen times and slashing her throat. He then went after Krystal Surles, slashing her throat. He left, unaware that she had just barely survived. Surles informed neighbors and helped the police identify Sells. He was arrested on January 2, 2000. Similar to Henry Lee Lucas, Sells confessed to murders that he had either not committed or could not be confirmed; he claimed to have killed over 70 people. Regardless of what the number really was, he was found guilty on September 18, and two days later, he was sentenced to death. Sells was executed by lethal injection at 6:14 PM on April 3, 2014. Modus Operandi TBA Profile TBA Known Victims Confirmed * July 5, 1979, Port Gibson, Mississippi: John Cade, 39 * Unspecified date in 1982, Little Rock, Arkansas: Hal Akins * July 31, 1983, St. Louis, Missouri: Colleen and Tiffany Gill : ** Colleen Gill, 33 ** Tiffany Gill, 4 * July 26, 1985, Springfield, Missouri: Ena and Rory Cordt : ** Ena Cordt, 28 ** Rory Cordt, 4 * 1987: ** May 1, Lockport, New York: Suzanne Korcz, 27 ** October 15, Lovelock, Nevada: Stefanie Stroh, 20 ** November 17-18, Ina, Illinois: The Dardeen family: *** Keith Dardeen, 29 *** Peter Dardeen, 3 *** Casey Dardeen *** Elaine Dardeen, 30 * 1988: ** September 11, Salem, New Hampshire: Melissa Tremblay, 11 ** December 18, Tucson, Arizona: Kent Lauten, 51 * December 9, 1991, Marianna, Florida: Teresa and Tiffany Hall : ** Teresa Hall, 25 ** Tiffany Hall, 5 * May 13, 1992, Charleston, West Virginia: Fabienne Witherspoon, 20 * 1997: ** October 13, Lawrenceville, Illinois: Joel Kirkpatrick and Julie Rea-Harper: *** Joel Kirkpatrick, 10 *** Julie Rea-Harper ** October 15, Springfield, Missouri: Stephanie Mahaney, 13 * 1999: ** April 4, Gibson, Tennessee: Debra Harris and Ambria Halliburton: *** Debra Harris, 31 *** Ambria Halliburton, 8 ** April 18, San Antonio, Texas: Mary Perez, 9 ** May 13, Lexington, Kentucky: Haley McHone, 13 ** July 5, Kingfisher, Oklahoma: Bobbie Lynn Wofford, 14 ** December 31, Del Rio, Texas: Kaylene Harris and Krystal Surles: *** Kaylene Harris, 13 *** Krystal Surles, 10 Possible * Unspecified date, unspecified location: Unnamed man * 1980: ** Los Angeles, California: Unnamed man ** Oakland, California: Unnamed man * 1982, Little Rock, Arkansas: ** April 27: JoAnne Tate and her daughters: *** JoAnne Tate, 35 *** Melissa Davis, 7 *** Renee Tate, 4 ** Unspecified date: Unnamed woman * February 28, 1983, St. Louis, Missouri: Unidentified girl, 8-10 * Unspecified date in 1988, Gooding County, Idaho: Unnamed woman and her son * 1989: ** January 27, Truckee, California: Unidentified woman ** January 30, San Francisco, California: Ilene Misheloff, 13 ** May, Roseburg, Oregon: Unnamed woman ** May 9, Roseburg, Oregon: Unnamed woman * Unspecified date in 1997, Twin Falls, Idaho: Unnamed woman * April 15, 1998, San Antonio, Texas: Thomas Brose, 40 * Note: Sells claimed to have murdered numerous other people and that his number of victims exceeded 70. On Criminal Minds *Season Five **"Our Darkest Hour" - While Sells has yet to be directly mentioned or referenced on the show, he appears to have been an inspiration for the episode's unsub, Billy Flynn - Both were serial killers, serial rapists, abductors, and robbers who were sexually abused by their mothers, were both drifters and committed petty crimes that eventually escalated to murder, targeted both single victims and couples, killed them by shooting them with revolvers or by bludgeoning (though Sells also used other methods), and operated in multiple states. Flynn also appears in Season Six. Sources *Wikipedia's article about Sells *Murderpedia's article about Sells Category:Real World Criminals Category:Real People Category:Real Life Killers Category:Real Life Child Killers Category:Real Family Annihilators Category:Real Pedophiles Category:Real Hebephiles Category:Real Necrophiliacs Category:Real Serial Killers Category:Executed Real World Criminals Category:Deceased Real World Criminals Category:Unreferenced Criminals Category:Incarcerated Real World Criminals Category:Real Life Rapists Category:Real Life Sociopaths Category:Real Life Psychopaths